Another Year
by Ravenic Tauro
Summary: Time doesn't seem to exist in Azkaban, yet another year passes by. Hope is a thing of amazement. ONESHOT


**Another Year**

**A/n: I don't own Harry Potter, nor do I make any claims that say I do so. Any original ideas are of my own making.**

**Special thanks to my lovely girlfriend for beta-ing this for me. She's the best.**

**This idea came about as I thought about how there were no holiday fics out about the New Year and somehow a story about Harry and Bella celebrating it in Azkaban popped into my head.**

_December 31_

Harry's lithe form leaned against the cold iron bars, just one of the small things that separated him from the free world. His once messy black hair fell down his back and over his shoulders in long strands, all clumped together. It looked more like dreadlocks instead of the hair that those who used to know him would recognize. Deathly pale skin clung to his skeleton like frame, further accentuated by his dark emerald eyes, which were sunken and haunted.

He sat against the icy cold stones of the cell with this legs bent almost to his chest and stared out past the bars, down the hall to watch as a family visited one of his neighbors. Haunted, half lidded eyes watched as the family comforted themselves on the holiday with outpourings of love and promises that their loved one's sentence would be ended soon and he could come home.

Harry had long ago lost any hope of being removed from this hell on earth and it was until the end that he would stay here. A little girl seemed to pick up on his thoughts and turned toward him.

Bright green eyes, full of life and love, seemed to sparkle as they looked upon him. Harry wondered if his eyes had been like that once upon a time, back when his home was Hogwarts and not a prison cell. The little girl looked torn about something before she walked towards him slowly and quietly, so as to not alert her mother.

"Hi," the voice was shy and could barely be heard but Harry had heard it.

He tried to give a smile but he didn't think he succeeded. He had any happiness sucked out of him long ago and didn't think he was capable of such emotion anymore.

"Hello little one," he rasped out quietly.

At the noise, the girl's mother finally realized that her daughter wasn't next to her and quickly moved to pull her away from the deranged looking man. The little girl waved shyly to him as she was pulled away and called out to him over the mutterings over her mother.

" 'appy New Yearr!"

Harry laughed softly and waved back and muttered more to himself than in reply.

"Happy New Year."

Silence again fell upon the cell block before Harry fully realized what the little girl had said. He turned towards the opposing cell.

"Bella!"

There wasn't a response. After several moments, he called again.

"Hey Bella!"

This time there was some noise as a figure shuffled closer to the bars from the shadowed area of the back end of the cell.

"Yeah Potter?" a feminine voice called out in response.

"It's the New Year."

"Yeah so?"

"Do you know what year it is?"

Bellatrix laughed before breaking off into a fit of coughs.

"Not a clue."

"Damn."

She giggled again in her almost hysterical laughter that she was so known for.

Silence again fell on the prison and the only noise that could be heard was the slight hiss of air as a dementor glided down between the cells a bit farther down.

Suddenly Bella's voice broke the silence.

"So any resolutions?"

Harry finally turned his head towards Bella's direction from where he had been staring for so long. He wondered if she was finally truly crazy. Resolutions? It's not like they lived much here. Or maybe he had already cracked and was imagining her response.

"Revenge," he said finally.

"And who do you have to take revenge on?" Her tone asked him if he was stupid.

Harry opened his mouth to reply before stopping short. He didn't remember. Did he need to take revenge on someone?

"Damn. I was hoping you knew." This time Harry laughed, sounding so similar to Bellatrix's that it was uncanny.

It was silent for several minutes before he responded again.

"What about you?"

The willowy woman seemed to consider the question before replying.

"I'm getting out of here," she said with an air of confidence.

Harry laughed again. He felt like she had said that before. Maybe she did.

"And just how are you going to do that?"

"My Master will come and get me."

Both Harry and Bella laughed at that. Their crazed laughter carrying down the hall causing the other inmates to cower slightly in their cells. The duo were known to be crazy and everyone wondered if they had finally snapped.

They both knew that her answer was stupid. He was never coming to get her.

"No seriously, I'm getting out though," she said after they had calmed from their laughter.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I have a tunnel. I've been digging all year. It's finally almost done"

"A tunnel?" he asked not believing in the slightest.

"Right."

"You dug a tunnel from your cell all the way up here on the Merlin knows how high floor?"

"I did!" came the almost passionate reply.

"And how did you dig a tunnel?"

"With a spoon."

"A spoon?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Uh huh."

Silence fell again as they both pondered what an escape would be like.

"Hey Bella?"

"Yeah Harry?"

"Can I come with you?"

The silence following this question stretched so long that Harry didn't think she was going to answer. He had turned back to staring down the dark hallway as was his normal position.

Finally a response came.

"It'll take me another year."


End file.
